How to make an Illuminated Manuscript

Illuminated Manuscripts are expensive to create and take a great deal of time and care.

Charles V

Fleurs des Histoires

Pages

The pages were made out of Vellum.  Vellum is a material made from usually sheep skin or calf skin.  The vellum is cut down to the size needed to make the manuscript.  After obtaining the vellum, a monk or artist would plan out what was going to be written and drawn on the manuscript.  Then he would proceed, with black ink, to fill in the letters in his document.  After completing the writing, he would then decorate the manuscript with fanciful borders, characters and letters, using rich colors made from the earth.

Colors

Many of the colors seen in illuminated manuscripts were created by hand, by crushing together mixtures of different substances found in the earth.  Some of these substances were even brought from far away lands, such as lapis luzuli.

Red Comes from Cinnabar, a mineral mined by the Romans for its mercury content Yellow Created by crushing plants such as saffron or from obtaining a form of Iron Oxide Green Is found in many plants and berries, and also in many minerals such as Malachite. Blue Comes from crushed lapis luzuli, and exotic precious stone from afar. White Is mostly made from chalk. Black Is created by using carbon Gold and Silver Comes from hammering the ore extremely thin into sheets (leafing).

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